Go Get Goals! or something...

SO, I was tagged with this Get Goals Going or something MEME thing, a while ago, but just haven't really had the inclination to think about it. Now, don't start thinking that I've had some epiphany or anything, just time and boredom ;-) So here goes me Gettin on Good with Goals...

• Gotta Get Goal #1 - I want, no need, to find my passion/talent. I know, all of you are screaming at your screen "COMEDY GIRL, thats your talent!" and to that I say, "yeah, I know, but it just don't pay" - ;-) j/k, mostly. Really though, I would love to find and cultivate what I am truly good at. Sure, I can make a mean Peach Upsidedown Cake, clean a stank butt, get myself and four kids out the door to school in less than an hour, oh AND make MILLIONS of people laugh every day (potentially - YOU DONT KNOW!). But at some point I will have to enter back into the work force and it would be nice to do something I LIKE, not just something to pay the bills.

• Go-Go Goal #2 - Take more time for myself. Too many of us mama's end up sacrificing our selves "for the sake of the kids" and that ends up being bad for us and inturn, bad for them. If we are not happy with ourselves, how can we make anyone else happy? I need time to be myself, to remember what makes me me. And that's not just good for me, its good for my marriage too. If I can't remember me, how will my husband? My kids need for the MAN and I to have a happy and strong marriage, after all they have been through they need to know that this family is something they can count on. They need to be able to look to us as what a healthy marriage and relationship should be. Not that any relationship is without its problems, but they need to see how you work things out, how you deal with problems, and how you treat the people you love - and mostly - how the people you love SHOULD treat you. We moms can't allow our lives to stop completely when we have kids, what happens when they leave? If we have raised them correctly they will go off into the world and make a life for themselves - then what do WE do?

• Gotta Go Goal #3 - Teach myself (hopefully the MAN too ;-) to handle stress a little better. I keep thinking "wow, things have been so stressful lately - I'll *instert activity here* later." But LIFE is stressful, something is always happening, I can't keep thinking I'll deal with things when life has calmed down, cause it probably won't - and then what? Like my goal #4 -

• Getta Great Goal #4 - Live, and eat, healthier. To successfully lose weight, you can't diet, you have to really change your life. At least if you expect to keep the weight off. Exercise can't be something I look at like a chore or a punishment. I have sooooo much trouble with that one! We actually eat pretty healthy around here. We rarely go for fast food. We get pizza on occasion if we're out or having company which doesn't happen too much lately. I have been cooking more lately too and I try to cook stuff with healthy ingredients, at least healthier ;-) I do have my vices though, Starbucks at 430 calories A POP(!) is one of them. I also have a love affair with brownie batter. I would eat an entire batch of brownie batter if my kids would let me I think. WOW, don't you love the personal accountability there! ;-)

• Go Girl Goal #5 - Ummmm...hmmmm...how bout four? OK SOUNDS GOOD! So there are my four Getting Great Goals I am working toward. Nothing too progressive or astounding, just important to me. But I guess that would be the whole premise behind Go Goal Getter so there ya go! Now I know everyone has been tagged by this thing already so I just say to those of you who have not thought about it or blogged about it - now you have a topic! GO - BLOG - GO BLOG NOW! :-D

So, until I am struck with a brilliant idea like Goals Getting Gotten - TNT!

HUNT DUCK

So by popular demand...I am blogging some scrapbooking stuff. This is a paperbag album that I made for my sweet hubby's birthday. He loves duck hunting so I found some embelishments and papers for hunting!

This is the front of the book and the insert with a cute little note written to my honey, then the truest words ever spoken on a sticker "We Interrupt This Marriage to Bring You the Hunting Season"...

This was his first trip and the first picture, I love this pic of him, not exactly sure why. I love the look on his face, absolute excitement. Its funny, later he was looking at the ducks on the right hand side and had to tell me that ducks don't fly in that formation...I was like 'Hon, its a sticker. I didn't make it but I'll be sure to let them know they are incorrect."

This is the o4-05 season, Jim, his son Michael, and the MAN in some weeds somewhere ;-) I love the paper though, it looks like the weeds and has that hunter in the left corner.

This was the 05-06 season started with this awesome picture he took of an area right out on our delta. The other two seasons he and Jim would drive 3 (or more) hours away and get there at like 4 o 5 AM! NUTS...I love this picture, so pretty. The insert is a picture of the walk out there, I think he has more scrapbooker in him than he would like to admit :-D

This is all the guys with their prizes on opening day of the 05-06 season. I love the camo paper! I tease him all the time when he gets home all camo-ed out "HONEY? WHERE ARE YOU? I CAN'T SEE YOU?" then I start laughing hysterically - he doesn't think its so funny, especially since I say it every time ;-) So when I gave him the book I said "I thought I put pictures on this page! Where did they go?!" ;-) LOL

This is the MAN in the water. I guess he fell in and Jim felt that was a good time to start takin pics! The pic on the left it looks like he's dancing cause he has both hands in the air, looks like he's doing the Chandler - lol. He says he wasn't but I don't know. The insert is Jim's son hiding in their duck blind - CAN YOU SEE HIM??! ;-) On the right he is draining the water from his jacket - F - U - N!

This is the 06-07 season. Again he has the look I love on his face and they had quite a good opening day! I thought it was funny that they have the camo clothes, camo gun, camo hat and all that right, then he shows me the CAMO SUNGLASSES he would like to get next year - WTF???

I made an open layout for next years picture and a little journal box area. Simple but I liked the paper.

This is the back cover with the second truest words ever written on a sticker - "Eat, Sleep, Hunt." That pretty much sums up November through February round here ;-)

Now a little disclaimer here, the album look a little dishevled only because we were on location when I gave it to him. Sitting on a rock in the middle of a river drinking a glass of wine and in some commotion (hehehehe) he knocked it over ALL OVER THE ALBUM! AND MY CAMERA! Don't feel too badly though, it gave me an excuse to upgrade and get a new 7.1 megapixel BABY! w00t!

Oh That Monster...

Okay, so I have a funny story - with picture - from Saturday. We were on our way home from the caverns and we stopped at this little drive up and get out type place in Lockeford. Now first...a little background...

Monster has this thing where when she is done with a certain food she takes whatever is left of it and throws it on the floor or tucks it into her high chair. She knows that I usually don't give her something different until she finishes what she has. I'm not all nazi about it or anything, I just know that she won't eat her green beans if she has yogurt on her tray too. So this is her thing, eat n chuck.

So we were eating at this little drive up place and she is enjoying her chicken nuggets then the MAN gives her a french fry instead. She takes a bite and seems to be alright with it. A few seconds later Boss says "Monster, WHAT are you doing? - NO Monster! Don't put your fry in my pocket!" - She had decided she didn't want her fry anymore so had to hide it to get her chicken nuggets back - so she tried to put it in Boss's back pocket! ;-)

It was pretty funny. So she finished her nuggets and then DH gave her another fry. Well, appearently that was more fry than she wanted cause yet again "MOM! Monster's stuffing her fry in my back pocket again!" Hehe - man she cracks me out - as Sweetness would say ;-)

WOOHOO WOOHOO!

Ok, let me start this off by saying WOW this is gonna be a long one! My hubby and I are looking into buying a new house! We just found it last weekend and we are already starting the prequalification process! There are a lot of factors that will either make or break this whole thing so it's not for sure yet, but we are pretty hopeful. I am SURE I will talk more about that in the months to come but for now...let me introduce you to our home :-)

Let me first say that this picture is not that great, I tried to make it bigger and ended up just making it blurry - sorry - I'm using MS Paint here for goodness sake! So bear with me as I take you on a virtual tour :-D

#1 - Two porches! No grass to mow or weeds to pull, gardener is included in homeowner dues.

#1a - I WILL NOT MISS the 27 (YES…27) cats next door, the fleas, and the 5:30AM CAT ROLL CALL.

#2 - The rooms have high ceilings and there’s a fireplace! Next to that is a built in cabinet for a TV, great use of space!

#2a - I WILL NOT MISS looking out the window into the ghetto and one of three things - a crackhead in my garbage can, a homeless person in my garbage can, or a crazy cat woman in my garbage can.

#3 - The dining room is pretty big I think, big enough for our table anyway! There is another porch that comes off the south wall too that is enclosed. Just right for an after dinner glass of wine and cigar in the summer.

#3a - I WILL NOT MISS hitting my head on the beautiful chandelier (sp?) because it is way too damn big for this low ceiling.

#4 - I actually liked the kitchen! Its kinda small but has a lot of cabinet space and counter space. It comes standard with a HUGE dual sink and under cab lights! There is a pantry and the south wall is open with a bar! Perfect for feeding kids in the morning so I can keep my dinning room table pretty and clean! Maybe even set it like you see in those model homes, ya know with like the pretty settings that would never work in real life! That is until my baby climbs up there while I’m in the potty and starts chucking stuff just to hear the crash noise. /dream

#4a - I WILL NOT MISS having only ONE outlet for the entire kitchen, crappy paint job, and a crazy cat woman going through my kitchen garbage *insert old decrepit woman voice here “well, I saw you were gonna throw this old, two week old pizza away so I thought I’d give it to the dog, she loves people food!”

#5 - A DEN! At first this will be Monster’s room and we’ll be bringing some cabinets from this house since she doesn’t have a closet. When she gets older we may move her upstairs with the girls and transform this into our office/gym/scrapbook room :-D /dream

#5a - I WILL NOT MISS having to get up and sleep on the couch because a certain little SOMEONE can’t (WON’T) sleep if anyone else is in the room! I also WON’T MISS dragging her portable crib up and down stairs every other day to which ever room is empty that night!

#6 - The powder bath is pretty big so there will be room for a cute little storage type deal in the corner there! Next to the door are upper and lower cabinets for … stuff, I don’t know what yet but I’ll figure it out! Across from the door is the washer and dryer, inside YAY!

#6a - I WILL NOT MISS walking out into a sauna every time I need something from the fridge if the dryer is going. MY GUESTS WILL NOT MISS getting locked in the bathroom and having to knock on the door until someone hears you to get OUT!

#7 - 2 car garage! Upper cabinets come standard to store car stuff … or something :-D You know, even when I had a house with a garage I never once parked a car in it? We lived there for a couple years and it was so full of CRAP that we couldn’t even get ONE car in there!

#7a - I WILL NOT MISS my car being CRAPPED on by the damn tree on the side of the driveway that a certain crazy cat woman won’t let us tear down because it was her mom’s favorite >:-\ I won’t miss my car being so covered in sap and sticky stuff that the door sticks sometimes! I won’t miss having to park 3 cars behind each other and having to move them all if one person wants out and make sure they are behind the gates at night or risk break in/theft/tire slashing/graffiti!

#8 - This will probably be the Boy’s room. He’ll have a regular closet, right now we don’t even use the one he has except to put stuff when we don’t know where else to put it!

#8a - I WILL NOT MISS the 3 (THREE) dressers and 2 (TWO) bookcases he has in his room now that came with the house because a certain crazy cat woman decided they had to stay here cause she had no room for them and refused to get rid of them. That is a lot of furniture for a 7 year old boy’s room man - and it’s on TOP of the floor to ceiling built-in cabinets in the room!

#9 - I love Bath 2! It has dual sinks, and the tub and toilet in a water closet. Outside the door is a set of upper and lower cabinets for linens and stuff like that.

#9a - I WILL NOT MISS the screaming fights that break out when 3 kids are brushing their teeth and one has to go potty and the others have to wait outside, on carpet, with toothpaste dripping down their little faces; or the screaming fights that break out when one person accidentally (or purposely) spit on another while brushing over a tiny pedistal sink!

#10 - Bed #2 will probably be the girls’ room. I am looking forward to getting rid of A LOT of their stuff so we can have a room that doesn’t have toys like carpet! Since the have bunk beds I think we may even have space for a desk, R is starting to need that. I am going to try to put their HUGE Barbie house in the closet so we can keep the bulk of the toy mess in there.

#10a - I WILL NOT MISS stepping on a toy with EVERY SINGLE STEP when I try to tuck the girls into bed! And yes I realize that this is partly my fault for reasons like 1) I should make them clean their room more and 2) I should be up there more and supervise or at least not let the mess get to the level that it does; but I don’t, on both counts - don’t judge me ;-)

#11 - YAY MASTER BEDROOM! It’s going to barely be big enough for our bedroom stuff but we’re used to that already anyway. Its got a window though! A window I can actually open! A window that doesn’t look out onto Cat Country! Then you walk down the hall and there are TWO closets! HIS AND HERS BABY! Of course mine will be the walk in ;-)

#11a - I WILL NOT MISS having a closet HALF the size of the small one for two people with A LOT of skinny clothes that both of us are unwilling to get rid of! Plus, hiding Christmas presents is getting REALLY hard to do!

#12 - The Master Bath is AWESOME. It has a water closet for the potty…AWESOME. There are some things that I don’t want to share with my husband, and I REALLY don’t want him sharing with me! And for that I am thankful that there is a window in the water closet! There is also a stand up shower, and its big enough for 2! AND there is a tub! And the one upgrade we’ll be paying for will be a Jacuzzi tub! YAY! AND there are two sinks! AND a COUNTER! Ok, if you know what my ‘master’ bath looks like now, you know why that would excite me!

#12a - I WILL NOT MISS my hubby saying “My back hurts, will you rub me?” cause I can say “GO TAKE A BATH! WE PAID ENOUGH FOR YOUR JACUZZI, GO USE IT!” ;-) I WILL NOT MISS hearing things from the bathroom that I really DON’T need to know about my honey.

#13 - The neighborhood. There is almost too much to say about that. There are parks all around us, a bike trail behind us, a community pool and spa, NEIGHBORS! The girls will be going to a WAY better school, I’ve already checked it out and it is better than their school in EVERY aspect and will be right around the corner!

#13a - I WILL NOT MISS the crack heads, homeless mentally ill, crazy cat ladies, unintelligible ramblings at all hours, herds of cats, FLEAS, kids coming in covered in flea bytes saying ‘MOOOOOM - I’m IIIIIIIITCHHYYYYY!‘, gates and fences, cracking paint, cracking cement, weeds!, cutting grass!, crazy cat ladies going through my mail, justifying why I want to get my own mail, paying for her to water her mothers 50 rose bushes excessively, driving 15 miles each way 3-4 times a day to take my kids to a below standard school because it is better than the one here, and on and on, this could be a post on it’s own.

So until next time...thanks for comin by!